STOKE CITY FC 2008/09 NEW HOME KIT

Stoke City have revealed their new kit designs for next season and the traditional red and white stripes have been replaced by a shirt with fewer, but broader stripes.

The new look shirt features a predominant red stripe down the front, with le coq sportif's stylish blue logo on both the right hand sleeve and the right hand side of the chest.

The Stoke City club crest is positioned as usual on the left hand side of the chest.

La Brancaia Toscana Il Blu 2003

The top product of the Brancaia brand is the Brancaia IL BLU, IGT (Supertuscan),
50% Sangiovese, 45% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Blackberries, currants and berries with hints of minerals. Full-bodied and chewy, with lots of character.
It's 5pm, Saturday afternoon.... cellphone rings....Buddy calls for a quick bottle at our usual haunt....5.10pm we are sitting around this bottle we have had several times before.... The results is another well spent couple of hours catching up and the accompanying bottle did not disappoint....Still young, it was surprisingly approachable and fun to drink today,... At first the taste had lots of leather.... That too gave way over time first cherry then plumb.... We drank over the course of an hour and a half.... I'm guessing that 3 hours of decanting would have really helped.

As always the downside to drinking in KL is that it will set you back RM268 a bottle retail.

Colchester United 0 Stoke City 1

The wait goes on for another week..... Stoke City moved a step nearer promotion to the Premier League with a narrow win over Colchester in what was the last ever game to be staged at Layer Road. Stoke City were five minutes from reaching the top tier of English football for the first time in 23 years, until Hull City scored a late winner against Crystal Palace.

They still lead Hull by three points, but their inferior goal difference means Stoke can still be caught on the final day of the season. Hull's win looks set to see promotion delayed, rather than denied to Stoke. The Britannia Stadium could yet see a party.

KJ's Cronies Hang Out @ Cafe Chef and Brew, Plaza Damansara

I've known of this place for quite sometime now but never got about to blog about it. I always use as a convenient half way meeting point.It's kind of like the neighbourhood cafe that seems to serve about anything and everything. I was told that the outlet is is owned and managed by the group that runs the Victoria Station Steakhouse.

It's another of those places where the menu reads like a phone book offering everything under the sun. The place is cosy and thats the only thing good i got to say of this place. The food sucks and the coffee is like dish water. Enough said.

The interesting thing of this place is the people that hang around there. I noticed many of those rent seeking crony types occupying many of the outdoor tables. I was right because a big black SUV bearing the registration KJ10Q comes up the driveway and out jumps the PM's son-in-law. He then run's upstairs to his office with all those seeking am audience with him in tow.

I spent a while sipping dish water while watching numerous people carrying thick files go up and down the stairs and hanging around waiting to be summoned upstairs. I must say that KJ must be doing very well for a former Timbalan Ketua Setiausaha Sulit di Pejabat Perdana Menteri to this successful business person. Life must be amazing for this young man.

Elsewhere the father in law our PM is once again going to review the projects he boldly said will be implemented under the 9th Malaysia Plan during his election campaign. Let's face it, nothing has taken off since he took over office. No Crooked Singapore Bridge now its NO PENANG Bridge too because of escalating cost. Fuck why cant somebody tell him that its not going to get any cheaper if you continue delaying things!!

Only people benefitting from his incompetence is his family, son-in law and cronies!!

LIVERPOOL 1 CHELSEA 1

European Champions League Semi Finals First Leg
I'm nursing a headache from not enough sleep. Yup i stayed up to watch the game. Liverpool deservedly took the lead thanks to Dirk Kuyts tireless contribution.
John Arne Risse was brought in when Fabio Aurellio pulled a groin muscle. JAR finally ended his goal drought by heading in an injury time own goal to give Chelsea the edge for the return leg at Stamford Bridge.
Its going to be tough as the Reds have not scored at the Bridge since Rafa Benitez was in charge.

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and Market @ The Curve

The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and Market is a chain of seafood restaurants inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump.
The restaurant is named after the movie's main characters Benjamin Bufford "Bubba" Blue and Forrest Gump who talked about going into shrimping business.

Well here's another of those franchise chain restaurants thats hitting our shores. “Mama always said life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get” That’s exactly what was going through my head when I walked into Bubba Gump’s.

Unfortunately this one was no where near my expectations. I've been to many so called themed restaurants and have been predictably dissapointed by most of them. It's a theme restaurant so you have to expect that its going to be busy, noisy and more expensive than it's worth.

It's new so you can expect over enthusiastic waiters that annoy the daylights out of me. So it was good that they had that unique paging system consisting of two license plates on the tables marked "Run Forrest Run" from Jenny's famous quote and "Stop Forrest Stop" based on the signs used to help Forrest when he played football at the University of Alabama. The red "Stop Forrest Stop" sign is used to signal that a table needs service and the blue "Run Forrest Run" means that all is well.

I also had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting next to 2 tables that were celebrating birthdays. You can imagine the racket the staff made with their incomprehensible singing, clapping, foot stomping and booty shaking.

The menu consists mostly of shrimp dishes, but also other seafood, as well as Southern and Cajun cuisine. On the menu, was (quoting from the movie) that "shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried, there's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. Th-that's about it.

We basically ordered the house specialities of Bubba Dip of artichoke and cheese with tortila chips and Shrimpers Heaven a combination of 4 varieties of prawns and sauces which was nothing to shout about. Only positive was the drinks.

To put it simply, the menu was disappointing, music was too loud, high prices, good service. Not sure if we'd go back next time.

QUOTABLE QUOTES 08/03

Life is just one damned thing after another. - Elbert Hubbard